Friday Five: Les Fameliars!

Back when we were in Ibiza (was that really almost a year ago? Oh, how I miss it), we came across statues and sculptures of a little sort of monster all over the place. The Fameliar is a little elf with a big ugly head, a big mouth and a terrible voice, which can only be found in the islands of Ibiza and Formentera.

A plaque at the foot of one of the statues explained, "according to tradition there is an ugly little being which, nonetheless, is capable of carrying out any job it has been given quickly and properly. The drawback is that it only knows how to do to things: work and eat. So, the only two words it knows are 'Feina o Menjar' (work or eat)! Anyone who wanted to have a 'fameliar' had to go under the old bridge of Santa Eularia on the Saint John's night with a black bottle, pick a certain flower that could only be seen on that night and place it into the vessel. Once it was well sealed, there was nothing special about the bottle but, as soon as it was opened, the 'fameliar' would appear, anxious and demanding work or food. The problem of the 'fameliars' is that they are so hard-working and they carry out the master's commands so fast that, once the job is over, they eat everything in the larder in the blink of an eye."

I know there are only four of them, but there are three pictures of one of them, so I reckon that works out. 

Prison Performance: Mad Blood Stirring

Mad Blood Stirring by Simon Mayo

Doubleday

Pp. 387

Simon Mayo’s first novel for adults concerns a relatively unknown incident about a massacre at Dartmoor Prison where American sailors were being held in 1815 after the end of the three year-year conflict between the United States and Britain. The peace had not yet been ratified and there were thousands of prisoners of war crammed into Dartmoor, frustrated, angry and turning to violence. This much is true, and the novel is packed with solid descriptions of prison life: crowded bunks; appalling food; general boredom; thoughts of escape and political intrigues; and the constant backdrop of fear and danger.

Inspired by true events, the detail is precise including the initial march to the prison, the labour of snow-clearing, the smallpox outbreak and vaccinations against it. The sailors are segregated by choice, with the black sailors in Block Four, where they sing gospel songs and perform plays which they take very seriously. King Dick ‘rules’ Block Four, and the Rough Allies attempt to rule the rest, with violence and intimidation.

Sixteen-year-old Joe takes on the role of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet that is to be performed with great passion by the inmates of Block Four, although they bowdlerize the text. The kiss between the lovers is fraught with danger partly due to the homosexuality (punishable by flogging and further brutality) and also because Joe is white, while Romeo, played by Habakkuk (Habs) Snow is black. The title of the novel is taken from the opening scene of Act Three of Romeo and Juliet, and here implies but the growing unrest in the prison, and the illicit feelings that Joe and Habs develop for each other.

Highlighting the theatrical elements, the chapters are divided into Acts, some scenes are presented as scripts, and there is a list of characters at the beginning. There are many characters and they are not all fully formed with some aspects that could have made great stories relegated to mere subplots, causing the novel to read a little like the first draft of a film-script, albeit in a well-defined setting.